Photography Book Amy Friend, Stardust

Amy Friend prefers imaginary worlds to reality. She wants to use photography as the medium bringing an opportunity to explore the relationship between the visible and the non-visible, sometimes even giving new life to images. Which is the case in this series going by the name of Dare alla Luce, an Italian expression that literally means “giving to the light” but is a term used to describe the moment of birth. Series of images that date back to the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, photographs from different sources, some found in the artist’s own family albums, others anonymous and which Amy Friend uncovered in Canadian flea markets.

The pre- and post-war are identifiable, the flowing of lost time and things, and serenity, absence, distance, the return from the front, freedom and holidays and festive garb possible once more, the first signs of modernity … The images collected and chosen by Amy Friend for this book entitled Stardust (Polvere di stelle in Italian) are striking for their beauty and poetry, mainly black and white, with just a few given refined, delicate hints of color. Landscapes, woods and lakes are painted as if by an Impressionist hand, portrayed in the pre-Raphaelite spirit or with orientalist inspiration, compositions reminiscent of illustrations advertising illusionist shows … the album is very varied.

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